McClellan’s “lockjaw” boats

With an absence of posts for about two weeks, I’m hoping readers had a pleasant Christmas. I know I did, and, though posts weren’t anywhere to be found, work continued behind the scenes (as always).

In addition to working a little, here and there, on my book, I’ve been honored with a request to write a chapter about Southern Unionism in a Valley county. Details about this will be coming in due time.

Otherwise, I’ve also had a little bout of “canal fever”… it having been a while since I last wrote anything about the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Ultimately, that drive within led me to this post… which would have been particularly well-suited if it actually fell around the Sesqui date, but that just didn’t happen.

I guess it is that drive that continues to obsess me, and started about 20 years ago… that drive to know more about my third great grandfather who happened to be running the canal (running the gauntlet, some might say, considering the the activity in that particular geographical area) during the war. In tapping into a few records that I didn’t check before, I realized that Cyrus S. Moore started on the canal a few years before I had originally thought. Yes, he worked as the lead lock tender, at Four Locks, Maryland, from 1858-1859, AND he opened a mortgage for the canal boat G.P. Lloyd, in 1860. Of course, I’ve touched on all of that before, in posts from a few years ago. Other records recently revealed that he actually began running the canal, at least as a boat captain (which means he may have been working the canal earlier, as a laborer on a canal boat), as early as April 13, 1853, when he registered the James A. Magruder to navigate the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. The Magruder was a class C boat, that measured 91 feet, with a breadth of 14 feet, 5 inches, and had a draught (draft) of 12 inches empty, and 60 inches loaded. While the boat “hailed” from Four Locks, Cyrus’ residence was listed, at the time, as Washington, D.C.

Gen. George B. McClellan

I have absolutely no idea what happened to the Magruder after that, and before he took on the role of lead lock tender. Still, something else caught my eyes in this particular resource (Registers Issued to Boats to Navigate the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, 1851-1861), which is available through the C&O Canal Association website. Specifically, several boats were listed as having been seized by the US Government, in February 1862. Now, by percentage against all those boats registered in those ten years, there really weren’t that many seized, but when a person sees that boats were SEIZED… it’s enough to take note. From what I’ve found, at least seventeen canal boats were commandeered for use by the Union army… thanks to a plan developed by Gen. George B. McClellan.

I had heard of this plan before, and I always wondered if Cyrus Moore’s G.P. Lloyd was among McClellan’s “lockjaw boats”, but it appears it was not… at least according to this one source.

I’d love to talk about the story in more detail, but there’s an excellent piece on it in A Case of Lockjaw, also available through the C&O Canal Association. I’ve heard it suggested that McClellan did this on purpose, so that he could, perhaps, give greater credibility to his plans for the Peninsula Campaign. I don’t think so… but there it is.

So, getting back to the lockjaw boats… here’s a list of the seventeen that I discovered, all seized between February 13 and February 22, 1862. Pay particular notice of the length and breadth of these boats when considering how they were supposed to be used under McClellan’s plan (again, see the story above… “A Case of Lockjaw”).

Emily Hoffman – registered 10/20/52; hailing from New York […and yes, there were a number of boats, in the overall listing, that hailed from New York, which makes me wonder… were some transported from the Erie Canal in the 1850s?]. Class C; Length: 92 feet; Breadth: 14 feet, 5 inches; Draught: 8 inches empty, 66 inches loaded. Owned by the Cumberland Coal and Iron Co. Seized 2/22/62.

Glad you’re back. Your posts prove to Bummer just how much he doesn’t know of the war in the east. Spent most of a life time in study of the western conflict. Sometimes feel like a bag of hammers regarding the rest of the story. Thanks for sharing.

HI ROBERT, I have been wanting to write you since last march, after the suter bros incident. Your researching is above and beyond anything that ive seen on any other blogs( actually its a tie between you and eric wittenberg).I was so glad to see you and tim snyder really exposed the reality of living in this area during the replies on the suter bros article on the whilbr facebook this past march. The whole time i was reading this current article about the canal i kept saying to myself that when I got to the end I would send you my good friend TIM SNYDERs email(TREMBLING IN THE BALANCE AUTHOR) so you could ask him if he had seen the boat in his research, but low and behold ,I see that you already ordered his book.I know from reading your blog that your family is from wmd and I was hoping that I would run into you in the western md. room at the micro film machine, but it didnt happen. Could you please send me your private email there is some other projects I am working on that involve the suter bros that I would like to send you , and also get your expert help on , I could also use your expertise on a project involving one of the mckee daughters that fatally shot sgt. joseph brown 18th penn. co b. july 6th 1863 while he was setting on his horse in the square in downtown hagerstown regrouping for another charge(first one failed) up north potomac street.The premier hagerstown historian and author ROGER KELLER narrowed it down and took it as far as he could eithout succes,and even though I have discovered some new material and pretty much got it down to evaline , I am certain if you could looked at what I have done, there is something im probably forgetting. Maybe me and you and tim could get together at the wmd room for an afternoon. Even if you were unable to add anything to my work , you could still talk with tim snyder about the canal, and we would all be able to spend some time with one of the true pillars of our community, MR JOHN FYRE, or as I call him , mr washington county, and an afternoon spent with him is always time well spent

I’m afraid I don’t make it up to Hagerstown as much as I would like. Can’t wait until everything is in the new library and the dust settles. As for the Western Maryland Room, my timing is usually awful, and I rarely make it on a day when it is open. I will send my email along to you. I’m curious to see what’s in the works with your Suter research. Regarding the McKee shooting, I seem to recall seeing something about this before. There were a couple of soldier-civilian shooting incidents that have caught my attention in that area. I’d enjoy a sit-down discussion at some point. As you can tell, I’m very interested in reconstructing life as it existed in the Clear Spring – Four Locks area during the war.

THank you robert, I hope we can get together soon, maybe you could come up to the hcc seminar this march 23rd, it is set alraedy , they have invited , eric wittenberg, steve bockmiller,dennis fyre , and of course john fyre is hosting, last year was great. I will miss my good bud steve recker, this year I was hoing he would be there again,. I dont know if you have seen his book , rare images of antietam, but it is has alot of new material unearthed by his hard work.Thank you for the quick reply , and I hope to get together soon. I think the soldier -civilian shooting was probably JOHN F STEMPLE, the artist sketching the july 6th cavalry battle from on top the clock tower, was fatally wounded as he worked. There is another but I dont want to let the cat out of the bag yet. As soon as Im done i will send you the article. thank you very much for all your hard work and time, to keep us history junkies satisfied, happy new year. D.JEFFREY BROWN

I came across your Blog when researching data on my Great Aunt Sarah Withers who served for a number of years as Editor In Chief of B F Johnson Publishing Co. I thought your understanding of the school book aspect of Johnson Publishing was excellent. Is there a chance you could email me directly to see if we could explore this link between my great aunt and the Company? My email is jwithersjr@yahoo.com

Thanks for commenting, Mr. Withers. My knowledge of the B.F. Johnson Publishing Co. is somewhat limited, or I should say, the hook that caught me was F.T. Amiss’ affiliation with the company, and what he had to say about it. I’ll send along an email to see how I might be able to help.

Robert, my friend Jeff Brown told me about your post concerning the canal boats seized for McClellan’s ultimately abandoneded canal boat bridge at Harpers Ferry. Actually 59 boats were seized. An itemized list of them can be found online in a Historic Resources Study done by NPS historian Harlan Unrau in the 1960s or 1970s. The list can be found on page 779-780 at the following link: http://www.nps.gov/history/history/online_books/choh/unrau_hrs.pdf
Actually another 100 boats were seized from the upper Potomac to supplement McClellan’s transport fleet for his Peninsular Campaign, although it appears that only about half of them were used for that purpose. I hope you enjoy my book. I have some additional information about the Four Locks/Dam No. 5 region during this time period, so feel free to contact me.

Many thanks for commenting. I appreciate expanding on the exact number of boats siezed. I’ll be sure to add an update to the blog post with the info you provided. I’ll also be sending you an email. Thanks again!

[…] All three have to do with my Moore family, specifically rooted in my third great grandfather (the same one I mentioned in the blog post the other day) or his sons. The first piece was a pic of his son’s (Cyrus Clifford Moore) Inn, in Hatboro, […]